Why I write . . . A reflection sometime later
A few posts ago, TJH2 posed the topic of "why we write" as one for discussion since we all started this blog as a writing exercise. Here are my thoughts after doing this for almost two years now.
I find myself posting on here for a few different reasons. A lot of the time, I'm trying to work out how I'm feeling about something "major" that has happened that day or that week, and by writing about it, I'm seeking to clear my head and to clarify my feelings. I don't always write all of my thoughts or my deepest feelings, but exercise allows me to think about them. I feel better once I've written down what is bothering me, and then I can let it go.
Writers block is another big motivator for me. Like most of us, except KHH, I make my living in large part by writing. At work, the writing is briefs and it's formulaic. I often find the formula constraining and I feel like if I could just get the words flowing, then I would finish whatever it is that I'm working on. I don't feel in this forum like my posts need to start with an "issue" and then have a "rule" and then an "analysis" and then a neat "conclusion," although I often fear that I write like this anyway out of habit. Knowing that I don't have to helps me get back to what I really need to write to keep my job.
I also post on here because I always hope that it will inspire a comment or another post by one of you. I love reading what you have to say, and it's fun to open the blog during the day and see that one of you has posted something. It's a nice little break, and I like the forum. It's a bit more thoughtful than our functional emails, and I feel like if nothing else, it inspires us to talk about deeper things when we see each other.
Tonight, I'm writing because I want to start writing a book again in earnest. I've toyed with it for a quite a few years now, and have never come up with a very good plot line. I'm hoping that just typing here will focus me when I click out of this and into that blank page on MS Word.
I find myself posting on here for a few different reasons. A lot of the time, I'm trying to work out how I'm feeling about something "major" that has happened that day or that week, and by writing about it, I'm seeking to clear my head and to clarify my feelings. I don't always write all of my thoughts or my deepest feelings, but exercise allows me to think about them. I feel better once I've written down what is bothering me, and then I can let it go.
Writers block is another big motivator for me. Like most of us, except KHH, I make my living in large part by writing. At work, the writing is briefs and it's formulaic. I often find the formula constraining and I feel like if I could just get the words flowing, then I would finish whatever it is that I'm working on. I don't feel in this forum like my posts need to start with an "issue" and then have a "rule" and then an "analysis" and then a neat "conclusion," although I often fear that I write like this anyway out of habit. Knowing that I don't have to helps me get back to what I really need to write to keep my job.
I also post on here because I always hope that it will inspire a comment or another post by one of you. I love reading what you have to say, and it's fun to open the blog during the day and see that one of you has posted something. It's a nice little break, and I like the forum. It's a bit more thoughtful than our functional emails, and I feel like if nothing else, it inspires us to talk about deeper things when we see each other.
Tonight, I'm writing because I want to start writing a book again in earnest. I've toyed with it for a quite a few years now, and have never come up with a very good plot line. I'm hoping that just typing here will focus me when I click out of this and into that blank page on MS Word.
posted by LuLu at
7:39 PM
4 Comments:
So what is the genre for your book? Mystery? Thriller?
I would want to write a self help book just for the outrageous titles ("Why Men Marry Bitches" - seriously, that is a title of an actual book) but I think after our making fun of the self-help titles the other day in Borders we (or at least I) may be karmically banned from doing so.
Wouldn't that be ironic though - my writing a self help book (even more ironic than my making fun of the concept of self help books... the titles really are ridiculous though)
CLC - you should write a self-help book about how to write a self-help book, maybe call it "Helping Yourself To Help Yourself - a Buffet of Self-Help."
I thought that woman giving us the stink eye in Boarders was going to lurk in the alley and kill us afterward. She was totally eyeing "Why Men Marry Bitches" . . .
TJH2 - if CLC and I hadn't just seen 50 books with more ridiculous titles, I'd make fun of your suggested title, but I'm thinking it might actually sell. Good grief.
Well, the title suggestion WAS a bit of a joke. It could go right next to Kramer's coffee table book of coffee tables.
I have never read a self-help book before, but apparently they must appeal to someone because they are quite popular.
On a related note, Deepak Chopra and Dr. Phil give me the creeps. I feel like they both want to lick my face.
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